‘Dancing with the Stars’: Ranking the winners (#5-#1)
“Dancing with the Stars” fans, we’ve finally made it! It’s been a heck of a fun ride, but we’ve arrived today at the point where we are going to put the final five contestants in the books in terms of where they stand in our all-time winner rankings.
When we started this list up a couple of days ago, we had no idea it was going to be this hard! Some of these were almost splitting hairs at the end, and we had to think of this in terms of the following: Who had the most dominant performance on their season, and to go along with that, who do we think could most dominate another season if they were to return? We did our best to remove from the equation such things as whether or not the person had an advantage going into the season or their pre-show popularity, given that we don’t think either one of these things matter as much when you’re looking at pure results.
Before we dive in any further, be sure to check out our rankings for #23-15, and then also #14-#5.
5. Nyle DiMarco (season 22) – A considerable amount of time with this show, there are technical winners of the show and then there are emotional winners. Nyle may be the best example of the two different types merging. He had a tremendous story and that made him appealing from the very beginning, but at the same time he also was an incredibly strong, lyrical, and emotional dancer.
4. Shawn Johnson (season 8) – The fact that Shawn almost won two separate seasons of this show is incredibly impressive, and of the several gymnasts who’ve been on the show, we do think that she is the best in terms of capturing both the technical aspects and the athleticism that comes with being in the ballroom. Maybe we’ll feel Laurie Hernandez was better a few years down the road, but we’re cautious about overrating her now given that it was such a recent win.
3. Melissa Rycroft (season 14, All-Stars) – You have to give some further credit for Melissa for being the only person to win the show in her second time out, and for doing it against incredible competition — including Shawn. Her skills in the ballroom were incredible, but also do need to credit her and Tomy Dovolani for helping to get more contemporary dancers onto the show at a time they were more scarce.
2. Drew Lachey (season 2) – We admit, there’ll always be a part of us that is biased towards season 2 given that this was the season that “Dancing with the Stars” really became the show we know it now to be, and while we know he didn’t finish that well in All-Stars, at the same exact time we think that at the time of his victory, Drew was incredibly dominant. We still think he has the best freestyle in the history of the show.His “Thriller” is also iconic.
1. Meryl Davis (season 18) – To us, Meryl’s far and away the strongest, most versatile, and most capable dancer the show’s ever had. She could perform any routine put in front of her, but she had this amazing ability to channel emotional and build chemistry with her partner in a way most other Stars could only dream of. Not only that, but she beat some incredibly tough competition in her story, including an inspiring powerhouse in Amy Purdy, her own ice-dancing partner Charlie White, and someone with a huge voting block in “Fuller House” star Candace Cameron Bure. If they ever do another All-Stars, Meryl should return in a heartbeat.
Now, we turn this over to you: Who do you think was the best winner in the history of “Dancing with the Stars”? Let us know in the comments below! (Photo: ABC.)